


Direction

by crowdent



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-10 19:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11698083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowdent/pseuds/crowdent
Summary: Everyone's graduated high school, Alex is going to college, and Jonas? Jonas isn't sure where he's going with his life at all. But he's not the only one struggling with the uncertainty of the future.And maybe that's okay. Maybe they'll all figure out their own direction, together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I finally gave in and decided to write a fanfic for Oxenfree about my favorite trio. This is a birthday gift for a good friend of mine.

Jonas lit up a cigarette and watched the smoke billow off into the night, carried by the slight breeze. He could hear the music pumping inside and could still feel the bass reverberating through the floor even though he was outside. Party people were having fun, hooting and hollering. Drunk? Probably. High? More than likely. Jonas didn’t stop to check. Instead he sat on his sister’s best friend’s friend’s back porch and stared at the stars and tried not to be too painfully obvious about his discomfort with the entire event.

 He didn’t really know Clarissa all that well and she hadn’t exactly been the most civil to him, but somehow he’d wound up invited to her college acceptance party anyway. Which, he admitted, was pretty nice of her, even though he wasn’t feeling the most social or interacting with anyone, really.

 He’d tried, when he first got there. He’d said hi to a bunch of people he only knew tangentially from high school and people whose names he had forgotten and was pretending he still knew. But small groups were more of his thing and with little miss popular’s gigantic friend group, Jonas just didn’t feel comfortable at all. It didn’t help that Alex had ditched him for the snack table almost immediately. But he couldn’t really blame her. There were pizza bites and pigs in a blanket involved. Who was she to fight their tempting sway?

So here he was, sitting in the backyard smoking, and feeling a vague sense of surprise that no one else had the idea to come outside. He’d seen some kids going upstairs, hand in hand, sneaking into Clarissa’s mom’s room while she was out of town. But he had the sneaking suspicion that Clarissa wouldn’t care about that and would encourage it. He’d seen the bathroom turn into a hotbox room when Ren had come out of there with an oversized grin and a wave in his direction, but everyone knew how Jonas felt about drugs, so it wasn’t a surprise when he ignored Ren.

 Tapping out the ash on the end of his cigarette, he took another swig from his beer to dull the social anxiety. Maybe if he got drunk enough he would start to actually have fun instead of low-key having a melt down or, whatever this was.

 The sound of the sliding door opening startled him for a moment. So much for some alone time. But then he glanced up and it was just Nona, looking stressed out and antsy. Jonas could relate, though it was weird to see Nona without Clarissa.

 Nona wasn’t someone Jonas really hung out with. He’d met her through Clarissa, who he’d met through Ren who he’d met through Alex. He saw her occasionally, glued to Clarissa’s side, quiet in the presence of people she didn’t know all that well, or chatting away with Clarissa over some gossip or another. They’d exchanged numbers at a school dance a while ago because Ren insisted that they start a group chat (and of course Ren used the chat to almost exclusively send memes), but Jonas didn’t really _know_ Nona as a person. He just knew _of_ her, because how could he not with how much Ren gushed about her?

 But there she was, just like him, hiding out in the backyard while a party was going on inside, like two antisocial losers. Her eyes found his and glanced down at the cigarette in his hand before taking a  seat next to him on the uncomfortable outdoor chairs. She looked cold, rubbing her arm before tucking her hair behind her ear to look at him.

 “Hey. Um. Can I bum a cigarette?”

 Her voice was so quiet that Jonas wasn’t sure he didn’t imagine it, but he digs in his pockets all the same, getting her a cigarette. He noticed, vaguely, how small her hands were, holding that cigarette in the cold night air. And maybe it was the beer talking, but when he lit the cigarette, the glow on her face made her look a lot more intense than he thought she could.

 “So. How about this party? Shouldn’t you be inside having fun?” Jonas said, finding himself making small talk. The silence made him feel awkward and uncomfortable. Not that talking didn’t make him feel uncomfortable too, but it was more friendly than the quiet.

 Nona let out a derisive snort, exhaling smoke with a heavy sigh as she leaned back in her seat, looking away from him and up to the stars.

 “I mean, it was fun? But Clarissa got drunk... And then she got _really drunk_ and, well, that part was a lot less fun.” She paused, curling a knee up against her chest with a shiver, and then glanced back at Jonas. “What about you? You’re out here too.”

 Something about her expression made him feel weird, so he averted his gaze back to his beer and took a long swig. It was getting warm, or maybe he was, but it tasted like piss either way and he couldn’t remember why he drank the stuff other than, he guessed, trying to seem manly. But that was the answer to a lot of things in his life. 

“I just... needed some air. There’s way too many people in there and then I saw Alex dancing and I can’t live the embarrassment down. As her step brother, everything she does reflects on me. So she’s a weenie and now I’m Jonas, the step-brother of a weenie.”

 And it’s good, he thinks, because that gets a little laugh out of Nona and she gives him this lopsided grin. He can’t tell if she’s drunk or if it’s just the cold, but her cheeks are pink.

 “You’re a weenie too, though, Jonas. Just embrace it. I’ve seen you drunk at other parties so don’t pretend you aren’t just as bad as Alex. A total loser.”

 And that gets him to laugh too.

 It’s not like he drank often. It just helped him in social situations to unwind and not be so...tense and, well. Himself. Jonas had a bit of a reputation as the local stick in the mud when it came to drugs and general party demeanor.

 Which, is kind of ironic considering how in the last town he lived in, he was known for being a loose canon. He decided to keep that to himself, though.

 “Okay, I guess you’re right. But we’re both sitting outside while there’s a perfectly good party going on inside. So I guess we’re losers together.” He joked, though the words made him embarrassed so he, of course, took another swig of beer.

 Only, this time the swig lasted much less time because it turned out his bottle was empty. Damn.

 Silence stretched out after that, and they stood in it, listening to the crickets chirp while they smoked their cigarettes down so far that it burned the tips of their fingers. But, Jonas thought, with how Nona was shivering, she was probably grateful for even that warmth.

 He let it go on, for another moment, but then he found himself pulling his arms out of the sleeves of his coat and placing it over Nona’s shoulders.

 If she was surprised, she didn’t show it, only pulling the coat closer around her before turning to give him this slow, appraising look. The kind of look she gave him before, and he still couldn’t brave meeting that intense, probing gaze. So he looked away again.

 Despite the cold, the place where he could feel her staring at him was hot.

 “Hey.” She started, stopped, and then tried again.

 “This is probably weird to ask you but. Do you think you could drive me home? I don’t...really want to go back inside or deal with any of this right now.”

 He glanced back at her, but her eyes were facing her lap now and she looked like her head was full of thoughts. He wasn’t sure what “any of this” was supposed to mean, but if she wanted to share she would. And if not, they didn’t exactly know each other all that well.

 He nodded, though, getting up from the seat and throwing the butt of his cigarette into the dirt. Nona followed suit and they kicked dirt over them before they both made their way around the side gate, to the front where Jonas’s car was.

 Car was a nice term for the hunk of junk. It was an old thing, cracks in the leather interior, paint peeling and a window that wouldn’t roll down. The air conditioning only worked when it wanted to, but it did have a sunroof, which Jonas liked. It was something his dad bought from a friend for a thousand bucks, insisting that it ran fine. He was suddenly aware of just how junky his car was now that a girl other than Alex was going to be sitting in it and he muttered out a “sorry about the mess” to Nona before opening the passenger side door for her to get in.

 She didn’t make any sign that she heard him, though, sliding in easily with his coat around her (which made her look smaller than she already had if he was honest) and put the seatbelt on. So there really was nothing else for Jonas to do but get in on his side and start up the car, taking a drink of stale water from the bottle he kept in the cup holder.

 Jonas had been woefully not drunk at the party and he’d regretted it, but now only having had one beer was a good thing. He didn’t want to stay at the party and neither did Nona, apparently, so it was a good time to be sober. He took out his phone to shoot Alex a quick text, just to let her know where he had gone, before putting his car in drive and pulling out of the drive way.


	2. Chapter 2

The silence in the car was uncomfortable and stretched on for ages. Jonas felt like he could hear every one of his internal organs for how silent it was. But finally, and thankfully, Nona spoke.

“Thanks for...taking me away from that party. I’m just really not in the mood right now. And I guess that’s selfish? Clarissa was having fun for once, but, I don’t know!”

Her voice spiked a little, and Jonas could see her tugging at the ends of her hair through his peripherals.

“She’s always so miserable all the time. I know that better than anyone because I’m the one she always calls to get her out of a bind or just to make her feel better. I should be happy that she’s having a fun party and going to a school out in New York like she always wanted to! But-”

Her voice dropped and Jonas could feel himself holding his breath just listening to how stressed out Nona sounded.

“I’m not. There’s all this stress because everyone’s applying for college and my cousins are going to fancy schools and I’m not even sure I should bother applying. I’m not confident in what I want to do and I keep thinking maybe I should start looking for a job and Dad thinks I should apply for school but Halmeoni keeps talking about finding a nice Korean boyfriend! Like that’s something I want to think about like, at all!”

Nona let out this sarcastic huff of air, arms flying up and fumed silently for a long, tense moment. Then she deflated, collapsing back into her seat, voice much softer when she continued.

“ I guess with all of these thing going on  I... don’t really feel like celebrating my best friend leaving me behind too.”

The silence that stretched after was even more oppressive than the one before Nona’s tirade, and it’s only made awkward when he hears Nona’s breathing go uneven and recognizes that, shit, she’s  _ crying.  _ And Jonas is entirely not prepared to deal with something like that. Alex never cried in front of him and he was more of the type to literally run out of the house than let anyone even insinuate that he was crying.

Nona cursed roughly under her breath and rubbed her eyes muttering something Jonas can’t hear. When he reached a stop light he dug in the compartment near the stick shift to hand Nona some tissues, not sure what to say. Her hand touches his for just a brief moment and Jonas is pretty sure he shouldn’t feel so flustered by it when she’s  _ having an existential crisis in his car. _

“God. I’m sorry, Jonas. I guess I’m more drunk than I thought to have like, waterworks exploding out of my face like this.”

And that sucked too. Having her feeling that uncomfortable to have to say something like that made Jonas feel like dirt. So he looked at her, full eye contact, trying not to be nervous, just for that moment before he had to turn back to the road.

“It’s fine. I was freaking out back there too so… you’re not alone. And I guess I kind of get how you feel.”

His hands gripped the wheel a little tighter to brace himself for The Emotional Vulnerability Hour.

“I’m not really sure what I’m doing in my future. It’s...kind of scary watching everyone go off and be adults. Alex isn’t sure what she wants to study, but at least she’s sure she’s going to college. And, you know… for all I make fun of Ren, even he has dreams and aspirations. I have no idea what I want to do or who I’m supposed to be.”

His eyes glanced toward Nona for a second, hoping that he could at least help a little bit with this. Even if she was drunk. Even if just for that moment.

He didn’t know Nona all that well. Hadn’t tried to, he saw, now that they were actually talking. And that was regrettable, because she was...Interesting. He’d thought she was kind of quiet or even wilting. A wallflower. She left an impression but there was a distance that kept people away. But at the same time, she wasn’t really like that, and he wanted to know more about her. No time like the present, he guessed.

“What do you want to go to school for?”

Nona only hesitated for a moment.

“Dancing. Ballet. I never really liked school, but when I would skip, sometimes I’d go to the studio to dance.”

Jonas hummed thoughtfully. It was funny to think about. Nona was very quiet around strangers and didn’t seem like the type who would do well on stage. But maybe that was where she was most herself. Where she could open up.

Jonas had once seen one of Ren’s band’s shows in an old abandoned barn. Alex had dragged him along and, despite the fact that he hadn’t really been interested at all, he still had a really good time. Ren was always pretty social, too chatty even, to the point of being clearly uncomfortable and downright awkward at times. Ren was the type to fill silence with an endless parade of words when he was uncomfortable (and so was Jonas, though he would hardly admit it to himself). But on stage? Ren was a different person. He was calm and confident and charismatic in a way Jonas had never expected him to be.

He wondered if Nona was the same. She did have this quiet intensity about her. Maybe on stage she would transform like Ren and get to be that kind of confident and charismatic that Ren was.

“You should apply. Forget about not being confident. Forget about whether you get in or not. Just put it out there and see what happens. If it’s something you really want to do, you’ll regret it forever if you don’t at least try.”

He paused, surprised by his own words and fumbled.

“Not that I’m telling you what to do.”

Maybe it was insensitive to say that. It was easy to talk and tell people what they should and shouldn’t do when he wasn’t in their position, and he worried that he said the wrong thing. But Nona just gave him an appraising stare again before she relaxed in the seat and kicked her feet up on the dashboard.

He felt like he should care about that, but he really couldn’t.

She wiped her face on the sleeve of her shirt and went quiet again, just looking out the front window. And that was the end of that. Silence reigned in the car, which didn’t help Jonas’s nerves over possibly having upset a pretty girl, but he tried not to let it eat him up too much. The silence was so loud that he jumped a little when Nona spoke.

“Turn here.”

Oh, right.  Her house. He’d been there once in Clarissa’s car when they all went to the beach but it was with the full entourage of Ren, Alex, and Clarissa. With just him and Nona, he felt this weird nervousness in his stomach that he tried to play off as he pulled into her driveway. Luckily, he was Jonas, master of the poker face, so Nona hopefully wouldn’t be able to tell how flustered he felt. He didn’t really have much experience with girls outside of Alex and, well...His mom.

“So uh. We’re here.” 

God, why was he so nervous? He looked over to her while he put the car in park, and found her looking at him with this strange, unreadable expression on her face. Their eyes locked for a second, and then she turned away, this half smile on her face that he barely saw before her hair fell like a curtain, hiding her away.

“Thanks, Jonas. For taking me home. For listening. For, like, Everything.” Nona said, voice soft. The tension left Jonas’s shoulders, relief flooding through him knowing that Nona wasn’t mad with him. He nodded, unsure what else to say.

“Any time.” He tried. And, as awkwardly as it had been delivered, she looked at him with a smile and a quirk of her brow before she was pulling the door handle in what looked like it was going to be a dramatic exit. She was mid-way into saying “See you around, stranger” and everything, and it would have been pretty effective if, you know, the door hadn’t stuck.

A look flitted over Nona’s face of momentary annoyance at having her plans foiled and he heard her mutter “shoot” under her breath. But, even if it hadn’t been as smooth as she had planned, it got a good chuckle out of Jonas before he was leaning over to her side of the car and over  _ her, _ giving the door a good shove before it opened with a creak.

He heard her suck in a breath, and then looked at the small space between his body and hers and immediately retreated back to his seat. His eyes trained themselves onto Nona’s house instead, digging holes into it with how hard he was Not staring at Nona.

“Sorry about that. It uh, does that sometimes. And yeah. I’ll see you later.” He said, somehow without stuttering.

He heard more than saw Nona make her way out of his car and the momentary struggle that ensued with her trying to get the door to even close again. He heard her mutter “This stupid car is making me look bad” under her breath and he gave himself credit for not even laughing. At least, not too loudly. But then she kicked the door and  _ that  _ got it to click closed. And something about that was just too much for Jonas, so he rested his forehead against the steering wheel to hide the fact that he was laughing way more than the situation called for.

He heard her let out an exasperate huff of air that, honestly, really didn’t help his laughing fit at all. He glanced through the window and she had her arms crossed angrily across her chest before she was storming to the front door with an aggressive “whatever, I’m too drunk for this”.

Jonas couldn’t help the big grin on his face as he quickly rolled the window down and shouted after her.

“Don’t forget to drink some water!”

He waited a moment, wanting to make sure she got inside safe, and heard her say “Yeah, yeah, I will.” and then watched her drunkenly fight with her keys and miss the lock a few times before she disappeared into the house.

He only waited a few moments more before he put the car in reverse and started on his way home.

The night was quiet, especially after all of the excitement between the party and taking Nona home, but Jonas smiled the whole drive back.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning was surprisingly normal. 

Jonas didn’t know what he had expected, but rolling out of bed and eating stale cereal without any milk to get ready for a day of doing nothing just didn’t feel quite right after the night he’d had. The morning was so normal it was almost jarring and he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. 

School was done with. He had his diploma so now he just had to do...what? He wasn’t sure at all. He didn’t really have any talents or even anything he academically excelled at. As far as his grades were concerned, he scraped by as woefully average. Since graduation, he’d just been treating everything like summer vacation. 

He knew, eventually, it would sink in that school was done and he had no idea what to do with himself but, until then, that mental breakdown and existential crisis could be a problem for future Jonas. For the present, he was content with watching bad cartoons on the couch in his pajamas.

So he did that, spending the whole day being a couch potato by himself and, occasionally, with Alex when she decided to join him. 

And like that, the day came and went, and then another day and another, until an entire week had passed of Jonas wallowing in some sort of post graduation depressive funk. Which, you know, was great. Like he didn’t have enough problems to deal with. 

He was getting ready for another uneventful day of wearing the same pair of clothes he’d been stinking up for a week, when, strangely enough, like the universe knew he wanted to be a lazy slob, his phone pinged. 

He let out a yawn and reached under his pillow where he knew his phone was and searched around while it pinged a few more times. When he found it, he flipped it open to check the texts and see who was blowing him up. It was Ren. Of course it was Ren. 

Jonas scanned the texts over, seeing an invitation to hit the arcade and then get some pizza at Alfredo’s after. It was tempting, but Jonas had so many plans to do...nothing. He could buy time by working out or jogging, but that only took up so much time and... Okay yeah, he had no plans and no excuses to say no. And Ren wasn’t the worst person to hang out with. They even got along maybe half the time. 

When he’d first moved to town he had helped Ren dunk in gym, and that had pretty much solidified their friendship. And after that, even though Ren could aggravate him sometimes, Ren had been a pretty solid friend. Maybe they didn’t hang out just them very often (since if Ren was going somewhere it usually meant Alex was involved) but they were tight enough that hanging out alone wasn’t too awkward. 

He sighed, rolling onto his back and staring at the phone thoughtfully, unsure if he really wanted to go or not. It wouldn’t be bad to go out and hang out, but he wasn’t sure if being around Ren while he felt aimless like this was a good idea. He’d probably wind up taking it out on Ren, and god knew how sensitive Ren could be. It might turn into a disaster.

Then again, waiting around the house and thinking himself into circles was pretty disastrous too. 

Letting out a deeper sigh, Jonas texted back a “sure. I’ll meet you there.” and peeled himself out of bed to go look in his closet. Or, at least, what was left in his closet and hadn’t been tossed on the floor in a haphazard depression pile. There weren’t really any clean clothes he felt like wearing, so he picked a shirt out of the pile and smelled the armpits. 

After deciding that the shirt was passable, and after smelling his own rank underarms (he smelled like guy funk and beef, which was not the most attractive smell ever) he decided he should probably shower. He gathered up the shirt he picked from the pile along with some clean underwear, socks, his (slightly dirty) jeans, his binder, and his beanie before he noticed, a week late, that he didn’t have his signature coat. 

“Where…” He pondered aloud before it dawned on him that he had given it to Nona at the party. 

He had gotten pretty comfortable at the house in just a t-shirt and pajama bottoms even though he’d only been part of Alex’s family for a short while. Alex was a pretty straightforward person, and it made being himself feel really natural, even despite the fact that as a person, Jonas was pretty uncomfortable almost all of the time.

However, he still wasn’t comfortable enough going out in public without a minimum of three layers on. He shot Nona a text, but after a few minutes of waiting and no reply he just gave up.

Oh well. Today was just the day to get outside of his comfort zone, Jonas guessed, before he made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower. When he finished up, he sprayed some of his signature chocolate axe and then got dressed. Wearing just the shirt definitely didn’t hide his binder bump, though, so he threw a thin plaid overshirt on top before getting the rest of himself together and heading out the door.

The drive was nice and uneventful and he met up with Ren without any hassle. Ren was leaning against the wall outside of the arcade, tapping his fingers along to whatever he was listening to through his headphones. Despite the arcade being old and kind of junky looking on the outside, there were a surprising amount of kids inside. At least it wasn’t depressingly empty, though. No one wanted to go to an empty arcade unless it was abandoned and they were doing urbex. 

Jonas fixed his hair a little, making sure it was dry before he put his beanie on (who wants terrible hat hair anyway) and he walked over, waving in Ren’s direction. When Ren saw him, he perked up, removing his headphones and giving Jonas that signature easy grin. 

“Hey, Jonas! You ready to destroy the arcade with me and win all of the prizes?” Ren said, bumping his knuckles against Jonas’s arm. He hadn’t said anything about his lack of layers, which was nice because Jonas wasn’t in the mood to explain anyway. He grinned back at Ren.

“I don’t know about winning all of the prizes. We’ll just have to see.” 

Ren gasped in mock offense, hand on his chest in a way that just made Jonas roll his eyes. 

“I’ll have you know that you’re looking at the best skee ball champion this side of the state. You should be honored to be in my presence, you know.” He said, puffing out his chest a little in pride. Jonas let out a snort of laughter as they both headed inside to the token machine. Despite the junky outside, the inside machines were pretty high tech. They even had the little plastic credit cards instead of tokens. 

“Oh yeah, I’m sure. But I have my doubts so you’ll have to put your money where your mouth is.” Jonas said with a snort, fishing his token card out of the machine. 

It was pretty loud in the arcade, machine prize bells going off, game volumes up, the sounds of laughter and hollering ringing through the place. The carpet was old and dingy, smelling of cheap pizza and cola, with places where it came up from the ground. Jonas had to be careful not to trip or step in any rogue food or other unrecognizable floor goop, and he barely heard Ren say “Oh ye of little faith” in response. 

Overall, the arcade was pretty big and it was crammed with casino style games, arcade cabinets, racing games, shooting games, skee ball, air hockey, and even a basketball tossing game. There were tons of kids there too, mostly younger than Ren and Jonas, but a few teenagers their age and older intermingling in the crowd. 

Honestly? Jonas felt kind of good about it after days of just sitting around doing nothing. Even if they were just at an arcade, it was nice to get out of the attic (as nice as his attic room was) and be around real breathing people. He’d have to thank Ren later for inviting him. 

“So what do you want to play first?” Jonas asked, arms crossed, looking over the sea of games. Ren stood next to him, short enough that Jonas half worried he’d lose sight of him somehow. His shorter companion looked thoughtful, glancing around the arcade before he dragged Jonas over to one of sit down arcade cabinet games, pulling the curtain closed and picking up the fake gun attached to the game. 

“It’s not a true arcade experience unless you sit down to play the Jurassic Park game at least once.” Ren said sagely. Jonas wouldn’t know. His old town was small and rural and the only kind of arcade they had was a tiny hole in the wall with a few regular standing cabinets and actual coin style tokens. There weren’t any machines like this one where he was from. 

“Well, you’re the arcade master, so I’ll take your word for it.” Jonas said, getting comfortable on the hard plastic chair, swiping his token card, and picking up the gun. Ren followed suit, smiling and looking like an excited kid. 

What started off as them just planning to play one round of the game turned into two, three, then four, until they had spent way more tokens shooting dinosaurs than they had originally intended. But it was fun, even though Jonas’s arcade gun shot sideways so he had to hold it to the screen to make sure he’d hit his target. 

Jonas’s hands were sweating and Ren was half out of his seat, shouting for Jonas to cover him. It was life or death, the tiny bar that showed Ren’s health dwindling down lower with each moment. Jonas did his best to keep Ren alive, but it was inevitable when the “Insert another token” sign popped up on Ren’s side of the screen. 

Ren collapsed back into his seat, arms thrown up, letting out an exasperated sigh and making the tough decision that, no, he wasn’t going to spend all of his tokens on this game no matter how far into it they were. He clapped his hand on Jonas’s shoulder, his tone grave when he spoke.

“I think we have to give it up, buddy. We’ve made it as far as we could. It’s time to admit defeat.” He said. Jonas refused, though, valiantly deciding to hold his own, even without Ren playing. 

“I’m still alive so I have to keep playing, Ren.” He said, making Ren laugh a little as he watched Jonas slowly get decimated by the dinosaurs without his player two to back him up. Soon, Jonas was down to a sliver of health and then, just when he thought he was about get some health, it was over. Continue flashed on the screen, and Jonas stared at the little plastic card with his tokens on it, Ren staring at Jonas staring. 

With a sigh, Jonas flopped back in his seat and watched the game screen go to game over. The adrenaline rush wore off and just left Jonas feeling the bitter sting of defeat. At least they had gotten a decent amount of tickets, so not everything was lost.

“We were almost there, I know it.” Jonas said forlornly, and Ren punched his arm playfully in response, picking up his token card from the machine. 

“Come on, I know a game you’ll be good at.” He told Jonas. So Jonas followed him, rolling his eyes at the pity game until he actually saw what Ren was leading him toward. Jonas smirked, rolling up his sleeves a little. 

The high striker was always hard to refuse. Jonas didn’t like to think of himself as the kind of guy who had something to prove (okay maybe he was but he would never admit it), but sometimes the challenge was too good to pass up. He wasn’t about to look bad in front of his friend. He could see Ren watching him expectantly out of the corner of his eye and Jonas swiped his card, picking up the hammer just to get a feel for it as the game warmed up, telling him to get ready to swing. 

Jonas took a few test swings, not hitting the target, just getting the feel for where he was supposed to be aiming. Then, he reeled back and slammed the hammer down, muscles flexing, hands tense. He watched the lights, then, slowly moving up to the top bell, anticipation keeping him drawn tight like a bow. He sucked in a breath the closer it got to the top, but then it stopped, just short, and the breath came out in a disappointed sigh.

“Damn. Oh well.” He conceded, and then turned to Ren, who was clapping a little, grin wide, eyes trained on Jonas. Jonas raised a brow at him, letting out a small laugh before gesturing at the hammer. 

“Want to give it a try?” He asked.

Ren let out a sharp bark of laughter and gestured at the high striker and then at his own arms. 

“No way am I going to try it after that performance. I know when I’ve been upstaged and, really, have you seen your arms versus my arms? I’m not really in the business of humiliating myself.” He said. Jonas’s grin widened and he grabbed Ren in a headlock, ruffling his curls a little before pulling back.

“I mean, I work out so. My arms are going to be bigger than a guy who doesn’t work out like...ever.” Jonas snorted. Ren pretended to be mock offended, shoving at Jonas a little before Jonas was already walking in another direction in the arcade. Ren had taken him to a game he’d be good at, so it was only right to return the favor.

So, of course, they found themselves in front of the skee ball machines. 

“You might not be able to show me up in feats of strength, but why don’t you show those skee ball skills you were bragging about so much.” Jonas said, gesturing at the machine with a sweep of his arm and a challenging look. 

Ren smiled, cracking his knuckles and stretching his arms, more likely for comedic effect than anything actually useful, and then fixed Jonas with a look of confidence and a smile.

“Oh, you’re on. Are you ready to get schooled by the master, Jonas? Are you ready to witness the most amazing skee ball skill set you’ve ever seen? Are you ready to-” 

Jonas let out a bark of laughter and shoved Ren playfully, interrupting the guy’s silly spiel. 

“Okay, Okay, I get it. Come on, let’s play.” 

Ren let out a laugh and swiped his card, getting the game started and Jonas followed suit. 

It had been a while since Jonas had played skeeball. The last time he’d done this was when he was a kid and his dad had taken him to Chuck E. Cheese for one of his birthdays. He always had the bad habit of pitching the ball up the machine like he was trying to show how strong he was, but he sucked at aiming them. This had apparently translated to his adult life. He wasn’t very good at it then and he was somehow worse at it now.

He wasn’t terrible at the game, but he wasn’t impressive either and missed a more holes than he’d managed to sink. Ren, however, hadn’t been boasting about his skills. He was consistently nailing points, calmly and patiently figuring out where the ball needed to go, angling it, and bouncing it off the sides so it would land in the hole. 

Despite himself, Jonas was a little impressed. 

“How are you doing that?” He asked Ren, which seemed to startle him into missing a ball. Ren looked up at him and laughed a little, the machine going dead after a few more tosses and Ren coming out with a mass of ticket points. 

“Skee ball is, uh, actually easier the shorter you are. Something about the vantage point. You were throwing with power in mind, and strength is important to get the ball up there, but if you don’t think about speed and angle it’s not going to get you very far.” He explained, pausing before gesturing. “Maybe try again but play on your knees? I know that sounds weird but just trust me on this.”

Jonas made a face and looked around, not really into the idea of getting on the gross floor or anyone seeing. But he did it anyway, swiping his card and trying again. And, surprisingly, the vantage point did help him get better at it, though he still missed a lot.   
Ren watched, giving him little tips, not to throw too hard, focus on just having enough strength to get the ball up there, add a little spin and angle it. It was hard, but Jonas did improve so he figured Ren knew what he was talking about and it wasn’t just luck. This time time, Jonas walked away with way more tickets.

“So uh. How do you know all of these things?” Jonas asked as they began to walk around, trying to figure out what game to play next. Ren shrugged, flipping his token card between his fingers idly. 

“Oh you know. Instead of dealing with my feelings, I just play lots of skee ball. You’re bound to get better if you play all the time.” He said. 

Well, alright then. Jonas snorted and turned to look Ren over. It was surprising, honestly, how good of a time he was having. Interesting too, seeing Ren play skee ball so well. He’d thought Ren was only good at singing and playing guitar, but the smaller guy had shown him another side of him today. 

Jonas had been so hesitant to come hang out but he felt better than he had felt in a long time, just goofing around and playing games. Here he was with Ren, both of them smiling, bumping into each other, playing together like old friends. And not a single argument happened. 

Maybe he didn’t give Ren enough credit. 

He decided to push any initial feelings he’d had about hanging out with Ren aside and just let himself enjoy the moment. The two of them bounced from game to game, playing the casino style games way more times than either of them would like to admit, going to one of the dancing games which Jonas destroyed Ren in, playing some shooting games and racing games, and generally just racking up their tickets. 

Jonas wasn’t sure how long they were playing, but soon they were almost out of tokens.

“Aw man, I was just hitting my groove too.” Ren complained. He turned to Jonas and then looked out to the floor, plastic card in hand. “Do you have any suggestions on what to use our final tokens on? Choose wisely.” 

Jonas was already walking to the other side of the arcade, though, Ren watching him curiously to see which game he was picking. He watched Ren’s face slowly drop in dawning horror the closer they got to the game and had to hold back a laugh. 

“No, come on Jonas, that’s not fair-” He started, but Jonas cut him off, grinning. 

“You asked me to pick the game so I picked one.” He said.

Ren made a face, standing in front of the basketball game, arms crossed. The gate to throw the ball over was relatively high and the hoop was far toward the back wall. Ren’s height was not an advantage here at all. 

“Fine, we’ll play the game but I’m not going to be happy about it at all.” 

They started playing, swiping their cards as the basketballs rolled out. Ren struggled, standing on his toes, jumping, trying to get even a single ball in the basket but not getting close at all. He kept whining “come on” and “this isn’t fair”, but Jonas paid him no mind.

Jonas easily made almost every basket, missing one because Ren shoved him out of pettiness. But that just made Jonas laugh. Then they were down to one ball on Ren’s side, the scoreboard at zero in a pathetic losing streak. 

“Come on, Jonas, buddy, help me out. It can’t go down like this. I just need one point so I don’t have to abandon society and go live in a cave for the rest of my life. Please.” Ren said, hands clasped, eyes big and pleading. Jonas rolled his eyes, looking between Ren and the ball before nodding. 

“Okay, let’s do this.”

And then Jonas was bending down to kneel and lifted Ren up piggyback style, wobbling precariously for a moment before he stabilized. Ren grinned, laughing a little nervously as he lined up to take the shot. He hesitated, and Jonas could hear a staff member shouting at them.

“Do it quickly before we get kicked out!” Jonas grit out, and Ren threw the ball, bouncing it off the corner and getting it right in the basket. His one, single point. 

The victory, however, was short lived as a staff member approached them, arms crossed, looking annoyed, before asking them to please leave the premises. So after all of their hard work, they came out of the Arcade with nothing to show for it. 

“I can never come back here.” Ren said, staring wistfully off into the distance as the doors closed behind them. Jonas felt a little bad, but it was Ren’s idea in the first place.

“There’ll be other arcades. Besides…” Jonas started, digging in his pocket for a moment. He revealed some shitty 3 ticket prizes he’d managed to steal on the way out. No one was going to miss them anyway. They were barely worth 5 cents. 

Ren still looked awed, though, taking the handful of sticky hands and cradling them like they were his precious children instead of a consolation prize. Then he glanced back and hurried on. 

“Jonas, my boy! My sweet, perfect, best friend-” He started, before gesturing forward. “We really can’t ever come to this arcade again. Let’s get out of here before we get caught. Pizza’s on me.”


End file.
